Columnist's Crossing Confirmed

Cape Breton Post columnist Rannie Gillis recently wrote of a childhood trip to the U.S. One of his readers thought his story needed documentation.

It was only two weeks ago — Monday March 31 — when I received the following e-mail. “Hello Rannie, I was just reading your column “Columnist relives bus trip to Boston when he was a toddler” and thought you might like a souvenir of that trip. Here are the United States border crossing cards for you, your brother and your mother. I enjoy reading your column. Regards: Juanita MacDonald, Whycocomagh.”

Enclosed, as attachments, were scanned images of three United States Custom’s border crossing cards. The cards, dated August 3, 1946, appeared to be a little bit larger than a traditional recipe card and contained a wealth of personal information on myself, my brother and my mother.

As this was the same day that my column about travelling from Sydney to Boston on a bus appeared, you can well imagine my shock and surprise at receiving this very personal information and from an unknown woman in Whycocomagh, of all places. [Link]

Yes, Ancestry.com's Canada to U.S. Border Crossings database is available even in Whycocomagh.